SLE372 - Evolutionary Ecology

Unit details

SLE103 and SLE204, and one of SLE111 or SLE254, plus any two level 2 or level 3 SLE-coded units

Corequisite:

Nil

Incompatible with:

Nil

Contact hours:

3 x 1 hour class per week

Content

This unit is designed to teach the fundamentals of evolution with a strong emphasis on the ecological and functional causes of evolution. In a time of changing environments it is very important to understand the functional links between ecology and evolutionary processes because that helps us to predict responses to changing ecology and has spinoffs in other fields such as drug and pesticide resistance. The approach will be a mixture of important facts, concepts, and models.

Subjects will include:

biodiversity

phylogenetics as a way of both organizing and understanding biodiversity the basic mechanisms of evolution (natural selection, genetic drift, gene flow)

the basic logic behind evolution and evolutionary inference

the evidence for evolution

ecological causes of natural selection and evolutionary change

ecological and other causes of evolutionary divergence

effects of habitat diversity and habitat changes on evolution

constraints on evolution, speciation

effects of evolution on ecology

making and testing evolutionary hypotheses

Assessment

Examination 40%, in-class test 30%, independent project 30%

Unit Fee Information

Student Contribution Rate*

Student Contribution Rate**

Fee rate - Domestic Students

Fee rate - International students

$1096

$1096

$3863

$3609

* Rate for all CSP students, except for those who commenced Education and Nursing units pre 2010** Rate for CSP students who commenced Education and Nursing units pre 2010Please note: Unit fees listed do not apply to Deakin Prime students.